Vaccine voluntary but follow COVID protocol as cases rise, Radhakrishnan writes to district collectors

CHENNAI: In his letter, he said “After reaching a level of about 20 COVID cases a day, slowly numbers have started showing an upward trend though the increases are isolated and minimal so far. Instead of reaching a stage of complete virus suppression which should be the goal, isolated cases are still getting reported in Chennai, Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram. And some districts including Tiruppur and Salem continue to record single cases.”

On vaccinations and COVID appropriate behaviour, mandatory vaccination notification in public places by the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) alone has been withdrawn. This makes vaccination voluntary for eligible persons. But the directives on mask, social distancing etc are still in place and COVID-19 continues to be a notifiable disease.

“Kindly keep your ensuring COVID appropriate behaviour as mask, handwashing, social distancing, adequate ventilation in closed places and people are constantly sensitised on the need for being careful of three Cs — Crowded place, Closed places, and Contacts of positive cases as they continue to be relevant,” he added.

While there is no cause of panic, we must keep continuing creating awareness about the need for eligible persons to get voluntarily vaccinated, by using the free vaccination facilities held across the state.

Testing of symptoms in all settings should be continued apart from contact tracing and analysis of the source will help to aim for suppression of virus and prevent any resurgence. “In consultation with the DPH, as per the guidelines issued from time to time, samples should also be referred for whole genomic sequencing,” he said.

City gets 12 new COVID cases; 25 districts have none

Chennai: The number of fresh COVID cases in Tamil Nadu increased to 30 on Wednesday. The total number of cases reached 34,52,985. Chennai continued to report the highest number of cases with 12, Tiruvallur has 4, and Chengalpattu, Coimbatore and Thanjavur recorded 2 cases each. Zero case in 25 districts. The test positivity rate (TPR) in Tamil Nadu stood at 0.1 per cent after testing 19,156 samples. Chennai and Chengalpattu reported 0.5 per cent each, Cuddalore and Kancheepuram 0.3 per cent each, Salem 0.2 per cent, Coimbatore 0.1 per cent. Over 34.14 lakh people recovered in the State after 28 were discharged from hospitals across the State on Wednesday. Over 22,000 samples were tested in TN in the past 24 hours.

No XE variant in Tamil Nadu: Health Minister

“There is no XE variant of COVID in Tamil Nadu, so we have instructed the airport to intensify surveillance as a precautionary measure,” said health misnister Ma Subramanian after inaugurating the Zonal committee chairman office at Kodambakkam on Wednesday. “India reported its first COVID XE variant in Mumbai, but the person was tested positive in January when he returned from South Africa. He has now recovered completely. The WHO stated that the virus will spread faster. In Tamil Nadu, however, for the past two weeks, less than 50 COVID cases have been reported,” he added.